Toy Dance Party

What do toys do when their owners grow up?

Toy Dance Party, Being the Further Adventures of a Bossyboots StingRay, a Courageous Buffalo, & a Hopeful Round Someone Called Plastic, is a fanciful answer to this question.

It's a collection of six stories about Lumphy, a stuffed buffalo, StingRay, a stuffed stingray and Plastic, a ball. They're dealing with increasing abandonment by the Girl who owns them. She has graduated to Barbie dolls and her toddler toys feel it keenly that she no longer loves them. This might sound depressing, but it's not. This book is funny!

In the first story, these neurotic toys decide that the Girl may still love them but has gotten lost. So Lumphy appoints himself to go outside and look for her, even though it's winter and he could get wet. He ends up getting stuck in the snow. StingRay refuses to go dig him out with a spatula because she's dry-clean only. That leaves Plastic to do the job. After all, it won't hurt her to get wet. But Plastic has the perfect excuse: "I can't hold the spatula."

This book is about an inch thick, but it's really fast and fun to read. It's by Emily Jenkins with plenty of pictures by Paul O. Zelinsky.